One of his officers, Colonel Lewis Cass,* in a long letter to the Honorable William Eustis, the secretary of war at Washington, said: "I have been informed by Colonel Findley, who saw the return of the quartermaster-general the day after the surrender, that their whole force, of every description, white, red, and black, was 1,030.† They had twenty-nine platoons, twelve in a platoon, of men dressed in uniform. Many of these were evidently Canadian militia. The rest of their militia increased their white force to about 700. The number of Indians could not be ascertained with any degree of precision-not many were visible. And in the event of an attack upon the town and fort, it was a species of force which could have afforded no material advantage to the enemy.... That we were far superior to the enemythat upon any ordinary principles of calculation we would have defeated them-the wounded and indignant feelings of every man there will testify.. I was informed by General Hull, the morning after the capitulation, that the British forces consisted of 1,800 regulars, and that he surrendered to prevent the effusion of human blood. That he magnified their regular force nearly five-fold, there can be no doubt. Whether the philanthropic reason assigned by him is a sufficient justification for surrendering a fortified town, an army, and a territory, is for the government to determine. Confident I am, that had the courage and conduct of the general been equal to the spirit and zeal of the troops, the event would have been brilliant and successful, as it is now disastrous and dishonorable." + Hull's behaviour, then, can

The same officer who, as General Cass and senator from Michigan, evinced so hostile a disposition towards Great Britain on the subject of the Oregon, in the session of Congress of 1845-6.

+ Doubtless an error for 1330, the entire British force.

+ Colonel Cass appeared to think the following couplet from the works of a poet, who flourished two centuries before, applicable to the general, whose unhappy destiny it was to render the lines singularly prophetic : Or with pretence of chasing thence the Brock, Send in a cur to worry the whole flock.

Ben Jonson, Sad Shepherd.

only be accounted for by the supposition that the boldness of his adversary's movements led him to believe he had to contend with a far greater proportion of regular troops; or, that having threatened to refuse quarter to the white man found fighting by the side of the Indian, he was apprehensive, in the event of defeat, that this threat would be visited with severe retaliation, particularly by the Indians, whose fury, in a successful assault, it might have been very difficult to restrain. To their honor, however, be it said, that although they took a few prisoners on the advance, the enemy sustained no loss of life beyond that caused by the British batteries; and in general orders, at Detroit, they were told, that in nothing could they testify more strongly their love to the king, their great father, than in following the dictates of honor and humanity by which they had hitherto been actuated.

"The news of the surrender of Detroit," says the American historian, Brown, "was so unexpected, that it came like a clap of thunder to the ears of the American people. No one would believe the first report. The disastrous event blasted the prospects of the first campaign, and opened the northern and western frontiers of Ohio to savage incursions.

"Previous to the surrender of Detroit, the governors of Ohio and Kentucky, in obedience to the directions of the war department, had detached powerful reinforcements to the aid of General Hull. Had he deferred the capitulation but a few days longer, his army, Detroit, and the Michigan territory, would have been saved.

"The forces advancing to his support consisted of 2,000 militia, under Brigadier-General Payne, and a battalion of mounted riflemen, under Colonel R. M. Johnson, from Kentucky; a brigade of Ohio militia, under the orders of Brigadier-General Tupper; and nearly 1,000 regulars, under the command of General

Winchester. They had reached the St. Mary's river when the news of the capture of Detroit was received. But for the well-timed arrival of the above force, a wide scene of flight and misery, of blood and desolation, must have ensued. Nearly half of the territory of Ohio must have been depopulated, or its inhabitants fallen victims to the scalping knife."

"The chagrin felt at Washington," observes James in his Military Occurrences, "when news arrived of the total failure of this the first attempt at invasion, was in proportion to the sanguine hopes entertained of its success. To what a pitch of extravagance those hopes had been carried, cannot better appear than in two speeches delivered upon the floor of congress, in the summer of 1812. Dr. Eustis, the secretary at war of the United States, said: We can take the Canadas without soldiers; we have only to send officers into the provinces, and the people, disaffected towards their own government, will rally round our standard.' The honorable Henry Clay seconded his friend thus: It is absurd to suppose we shall not succeed in our enterprise against the enemy's provinces. We have the Canadas as much under our command as she (Great Britain) has the ocean; and the way to conquer her on the ocean is to drive her from the land. I am not for stopping at Quebec, or any where else; but I would take the whole continent from them, and ask them no favors. Her fleets cannot then rendezvous at Halifax, as now; and, having no place of resort in the north, cannot infest our coast as they have lately done. It is as easy to conquer them on the land, as their whole navy would conquer ours on the ocean. We must take the continent from them. I wish never to see a peace till we do. God has given us the power and the means: we are to blame if we do not use them. If we get the continent, she must allow us the freedom of the sea.' This is the gentleman who, afterwards, in the charac

ter of a commissioner-and it stands as a record of his unblushing apostacy-signed the treaty of peace."

Tecumseh, who was slain in the year following, headed a party of his warriors on this occasion, and in the rough sketch already mentioned, Major-General Brock remarked: "Among the Indians whom I found at Amherstburg, and who had arrived from distant parts of the country, there were some extraordinary characters. He who most attracted my attention was a Shawanee chief, Tecumseh, the brother of the prophet, who for the last two years has carried on, contrary to our remonstrances, an active war against the United States. A more sagacious or a more gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist. He was the admiration of every one who conversed with him. From a life of dissipation he has not only become in every respect abstemious, but he has likewise prevailed on all his nation, and many of the other tribes, to follow his example." Previously to crossing over to Detroit, Major-General Brock inquired of Tecumseh what sort of a country he should have to pass through in the event of his proceeding further. Tecumseh, taking a roll of elm bark, and extending it on the ground, drew forth his scalping knife, and with the point presently edged upon the back a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, and roads-a plan which, if not as neat, was fully as intelligible as if a surveyor had prepared it. Pleased with this unexpected talent in Tecumseh ; with his defeat of the Americans near Brownstown; and with his having, by his characteristic boldness, induced the Indians, not of his own tribe, to cross the river prior to the embarkation of the white troops, Major-General Brock, soon after Detroit was surrendered, took off his sash and publicly placed it round the body of the chief. Tecumseh received the honor with evident gratification, but was the next day seen without the sash. The British general,

fearing that something had displeased the Indian, sent his interpreter for an explanation. Tecuinseh told him, that not wishing to wear such a mark of distinction when an older, and, as he said, an abler warrior than himself was present, he had transferred the sash to the Wyandot chief, Roundhead.*

The unfortunate General Hull, on his return to the United States, was tried by a court martial and condemned to death; but the sentence was remitted by the president, in consideration of his age and services during the war of independence.† His name was, however, struck off the rolls of the army. He had evidently lost the energy of character which had marked his early career; and although it is most strange that he did not either meet the British in the open field, or try the effect of a few discharges of grape shot on their advancing column, yet it is due to him to add, that two or three 12 lb. shot fell into the fort from the British battery, killing and wounding a few officers and men,‡ and that the fort itself was much crowded, not merely with troops, but with the terrified inhabitants of Detroit, who sought refuge there from the Indians, believing that, with the beginning of the conflict, they would rush into the town, and commence an indiscriminate slaughter.§ Thus very few disapproved of the surrender at the critical moment, although so many were loud in condemning it afterwards. The general's son and aide-de-camp at Detroit, Captain Hull, was killed in July, 1814, in the hard-fought battle of Lundy's Lane, near the Falls of Niagara.

* James' Military Occurrences.

+ For his revolutionary services, see Appendix A, Section 2, No. 2. Among the killed was Captain Hanks, the commandant of Michilimackinac at the time of its surrender.

General Hull in his dispatch, already quoted, said: "The fort at this time was filled with women, children, and the old and decrepit people of the town and country: they were unsafe in the town, as it was entirely open and exposed to the enemy's batteries. Back of the fort, above or below it, there was no safety for them on account of the Indians."